A readable map, at any density
Past a few hundred markers a common operating picture stops being a picture. Clusters collapses colliding markers into single counted, colour-graded groups in screen space — so the terrain comes back and the count tells you where the activity is. Nothing is deleted, nothing is unsubscribed.
Grouped by what the eye sees, restored the moment you zoom in
Every visible marker is pushed through the map's own forward projection to its actual screen coordinate. Anything off the viewport is dropped with a margin, so the work scales with what is on screen rather than with the size of the database.
Screen coordinates are binned into a grid sized at twice the cluster radius, and every candidate group is re-checked against the radius before it is allowed to form — so a cell boundary never invents a cluster out of markers that are not visually together.
Members are set invisible and tracked, never removed. When the operator zooms in or taps a cluster, it dissolves and every marker returns with its type, metadata and history untouched. Your self marker, routes and — by default — teammate EUDs are never clustered at all.
Marker density is the quiet failure mode of a long operation. Clusters gives the map a way to say “there are forty things here” — and to hand them all back the moment the operator leans in.
Every sensor hit, tracker ping and dropped point adds an icon, and none of them go away on their own. The operator ends up reading a wall of overlapping symbols with the terrain buried underneath, and ATAK’s only levers are blunt: hide a whole overlay, or start deleting. Both trade awareness for legibility.
Most clustering works in ground units, so the grouping changes meaning every time the scale changes. This plugin projects each marker through the map’s own forward transform to its actual screen coordinate, bins those pixels into a grid sized at twice the cluster radius, then re-checks each candidate group against the radius so a cell boundary never invents a cluster. Markers outside the viewport are dropped with a margin before any work happens.
A cluster is a real map item standing in for its members: it carries the count in its callsign and title, and steps green, yellow, orange, red as the group grows. The members are set invisible and tracked, not removed — zoom in or tap the cluster and every one returns with its type, metadata and history untouched. Your own self marker, routes and non-point items are never clustered, and teammate EUDs are excluded unless you opt them in.
Density tolerance is a matter of mission, so every parameter sits in a drop-down with live sliders rather than a config file. Set how close is close enough, how many markers make a crowd, and whether clustering should engage at all below a given marker count — and watch the map respond as you drag. One switch turns the whole thing off; another opts teammate EUDs in when the density justifies it.
Extended feature list
The primary control: how far apart two markers can sit on screen and still be grouped. Because it is measured in pixels rather than metres, the behaviour stays consistent as the operator zooms.
An upper clamp so clusters never grow beyond a set screen distance no matter what the other settings allow, and a floor below which markers always cluster regardless. Both are adjustable — 50–500 px and 10–100 px.
How many markers have to collide before a cluster is worth forming. Set it high and only genuine crowds collapse; set it low and even pairs group up.
Leave clustering dormant until the map actually holds enough markers to need it, so the picture behaves normally early in an operation and starts collapsing density only when it earns it. Zero always clusters.
TAK EUD contacts are identified and skipped, so a teammate never disappears into a cluster unless the operator deliberately opts them in with a switch. Your own self marker is never clustered under any setting.
Routes and anything that is not a point map item are never grouped, along with existing cluster markers — so the geometry an operator drew stays exactly as they drew it.
The cluster's callsign carries a filled dot and the member count, its title reads as the count, and its colour steps green, yellow, orange, red as the group grows — so density is visible before the number is read.
Only markers inside the viewport, plus a radius-sized margin, are processed, and recomputes on map movement and scale change run on a 500 ms debounce so clusters do not flicker while the operator pans.
Any picture that gets crowded.
Clustering is not a feature you notice until the map has too much on it. These are the situations where it stops being cosmetic and starts being the difference between a readable picture and a wall of icons.
Every sensor, tracker and dropped point adds an icon and none of them leave. Set an activation threshold so the map behaves normally early on and starts collapsing groups only once the marker count justifies it.
Drone detections, tracker pings and RF hits stack up quicker than an operator can triage. Clustering keeps the terrain readable without anyone having to decide what to delete, and the colour grading shows where the concentration is.
At AO scale a counted cluster communicates concentration far better than a solid mass of icons. Zoom into any one of them and the underlying markers come straight back for the detail.
Clustering never swallows the people on the net: EUD contacts are excluded by default, the self marker is always excluded, and routes are left exactly as drawn.
Give the map its terrain back.
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